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Poland’s acting president, Bronislaw Komorowski, has signed a new law that bans smoking in many public places but that falls far short of the complete ban in public that supporters had wanted.

The bill, signed by Mr Komorowski, the parliamentary speaker who became acting president earlier this month after the plane crash in Russia that killed the president and other top government officials, was a compromise between bills approved by the Sejm, Poland’s lower chamber, and the Senate.

Lukasz Balwicki, of the department of public health and social medicine at the Medical University of Gdansk, told the BMJ that the new law will allow bars, restaurants, and workplaces with more than one room to set up a room for smoking, provided that it is closed and ventilated. Furthermore, operators of hotels, airports, universities, and elderly people’s homes have the option, but are …